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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Mt. Hermon

I suppose it's that time of year again...

Last year at the Mt. Hermon Christian Writer's Conference, I was so incredibly blessed to have been nominated and selected the Most Promising Teen Writer of 2012. God is working in amazing ways in my life. And since last year was so incredible, I can't help but pursue going back for a third year.

It's really no wonder though, Mt. Hermon is one of those few places where it's easy for a writer to get lost in the euphoria of being surrounded by other writers - believe me when I say that that is one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Writers are odd people. When we get together, we have an all out ball just talking about stories. We can even get into a full on discussion about editing. That's not normal I've come to find with non-writers. Most people don't talk about the techniques of writing. Oh well... we enjoy ourselves.

I took "Aura Lea" with me last year and I believe that I'm going to take this story with me again. Mostly because I put far too much effort into rewriting the opening scene for the 4th time. Put simply... the story I blogged about so many months ago is nothing like the story I "finished" over last summer. It's still changing and transforming. Names... Plot.... Family relations... all this and more is almost entirely transformed into something I might consider, "flipped on its head."

Everything has to be mailed by mid march, so aside from being a full-time college student, my life is now absorbed in turning the first 20 pages of "Aura Lea" into something worthy to behold.

Lauraine Snelling critiqued it for me at last year's conference and oh dear... I only just realized what she meant by "shallow" and "unsympathetic." Hence why I rewrote the opening scene altogether. My Heroine was far too angry to be a character anyone could like and all you could really hear was her bluster... very few genuine thoughts... therefore, "shallow" and "unsympathetic"